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 | | Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures (3rd Edition) by Myron W. Lustig, Jolene Koester ISBN-10: 9780321006127 ISBN-10: 0-321-00612-7 ISBN-13: 9780321006127 ISBN-13: 978-0-321-00612-7 Textbook Binding 1998-08 Allyn & Bacon Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Striking a unique balance between skills and theory, Intercultural Competence provides readers with the background and confidence to succeed in today's multi-cultural environment. Blending both the practical and the theoretical, the concrete and the abstract, this book is both enjoyable to read and thoroughly researched. By clearly explaining different theories and the significance of cultural patterns and having readers practice what they learn via examples in the book, Intercultural Competence better prepares readers to interact in intercultural relationships. The book also provides a discussion of important ethical and social issues relating to intercultural communication. The authors cover American multiculturalism as well as global cultural issues. For anyone interested in intercultural communication. | ||
Reviews | ||
Over its Head I went to CSUN, where Koester is in charge. This is a good example of how academics has gone astray. It tries to cover everything and there's very little scientific basis for it. I know very little about most of these cultures but the ones I do know are not accurately represented. For example, it states that Irish people were considered a mongrel race. Irish people were indeed considered a race, my grandmother's records at Ellis defined her race as Irish. That's not mongrel. The footnote to back this up refers to a book about Jews. Jews are not the same as Irish. So the reference doesn't support the statement. I can only imagine all the other mistakes like this. Plus, you have issues like religion, which the book treats as a subset of culture. It states that Catholicism is highly doctrinal. This is technically true but in reality the church allows local cultures to have great influence. In fact, the Catholic church deals with the intercultural issues more than any other organization and the university could learn something from them. In terms of how Koester runs CSUN she doesn't listen to anyone although she's constantly talking about diversity. Local students are treated like lepers while foreign students are always superior, even if they lack English skills. CSUN actually requires an English test, but they have two scales, which allows foreign students to pass without having proper grammer. The way it works in practice Interculturalism is even more doctrinal than Catholicsm. It's a way to crush Democracy, just as Communism did before. As far as the book goes it's about average in terms of other similar books which have the same flaws. The University education is mostly a bunch of fads like this. | ||
Academically Sound I have been teaching Intercultural Communication using this text (previous edition). After completing my MPhil in Intercultural Communication and being exposed to alot of texts in the field, I am still confident that this text is a very good introduction for college students. I have been teaching groups of students that are very diverse, with up to 14 different cultures at one time, and we always have fun with this book, because we are able to discuss the concepts very broadly. I still have to find a better book in its class. | ||
Maximum incompetence. Intercultural competence! What a totally inappropriate title for a book, especially when the subject matter is; view points of different cultures. Who gets to decide who is competent and who is not? Would one become competent after they read this book? People who do not agree with the authors, are they incompetent? After the initial shock of the title, I started reading this book, in fact I had to read the whole thing since it was the text book of a class that I was taking. Unfortunately the shock intensified. They define things that are not definable and they categorize things in the most reductionist and mechanistic fashion. Not only that but they don't even use English properly. They ask a question about apples and then give an answer about oranges, not realizing that the question has really no answer and should not be asked to begin with. This book is supposed to be about different points of view but there is nothing in it that would make one understand other cultures. It is all about the extremely narrow and linear point of view of the authors. They explain the simplest concepts in the most convoluted way possible but in reality the information is extremely superficial. They basically name and categorize things and consider them understood. After a few weeks our class turned into 'lets find out how wrong the authors are' class. I must admit after that it was kind of fun. When I asked my teacher as to why she chose this book, thinking perhaps I am missing something, her answer was "because it seems to be quite popular"! So now we are reading books not because of their content but because of their popularity. What a disappointment. | ||